Months after paying Rs 1.63 crore for a loan that he was supposed to get for a housing project in Patna, a builder from Bihar realised that the director of a BKC-based finance company had allegedly cheated him of the money

Months after paying Rs 1.63 crore for a loan that he was supposed to get for a housing project in Patna, a builder from Bihar realised that the director of a BKC-based finance company had allegedly cheated him of the money. In the second week of June, police arrested the accused, who claimed to be the director of RJ Capitals Overseas Pvt Ltd, situated at Capital building in BKC. He had promised to arrange a loan of Rs 25 crore for the builder, by mortgaging the housing project, and even made him deposit the initial amount in different bank accounts. However, when the victim realised that he had been cheated, he registered a complaint with the Bandra Kurla Complex police and got the director arrested.Though he has been released on bail, cops are still in the process of investigating the case and collecting evidence against him.

The arrested accused has been identified as Pravinkumar Agarwal, a resident of Thane. According to police, complainant Shivkumar Singh, who runs a gas agency in Bihar through his company Agrani Infra Developer, had started the housing project 'Suraksha Enclave' for those who are part of various security forces, under the scheme of Akhil Bhartiya Suraksha Awaas Yojna. As Singh was in need of funds for the project, he spoke to a few people regarding it. Through a loan agent, he came to know about Agarwal and met him at his BKC office in July last year. Agarwal allegedly promised Singh that he would get him a loan by mortgaging his housing project, police said.

Multiple payments"After Singh agreed to the proposal, the accused made him pay Rs 7 lakh and Rs 5.65 lakh towards the loan processing fee and appointment of a legal consultant named Khush Sharma for the deal. The payments were made on July 20 and July 30, 2016, respectively. Singh also claimed that he paid Rs 15 lakh for Agarwal's travel to Bihar and his stay there, as he had to visit the housing project site," said an officer from BKC police station.

The following month, Agarwal told Singh that the loan would be sanctioned, but he would have to pay 8 per cent of the total amount towards stamp duty, which was around Rs 2 crore. "As the builder did not have so much of money, he paid Agarwal Rs 1.5 crore. The accused asked him to arrange for the remaining amount, as all of it would be returned to him after the loan gets sanctioned," added the officer.

After Singh made all the payments, Agarwal and his partner Puja Dagli, who claimed to be the deputy-managing director of the company, assured him in writing that he would get the loan amount on January 11, 2017. Singh had also provided the accused the 69 sale deeds for mortgaging the housing project, said another officer.

Where's Rs 1 crore?Months passed but Singh didn't receive the money. Whenever he called Agarwal, he told him that the money would be credited in his account soon. "Once he even sent Singh a message saying that R1 crore had been deposited in his account. But he had not received a single penny," said a source. This is when Singh realised that he had been cheated. Probe revealed Agarwal made his personal secretary Pooja the deputy director of the company to cheat Singh.

Rs 7 lakh The amount Singh paid as the loan processing fee

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